There's no reason to settle for something as simple as blinking lights when a little bit of hacking can turn basic LED Christmas lights into a rainbow-riffic computer controlled light show.

Deep Darc, the DIY and project blog of Robert Quattlebaum, has a great tutorial on turning a set of GE Color Effects light bulbs into an advanced display tool. Rather than leave the bulbs stock—capable of changing colors via remote control but otherwise pretty boring, Robert hacked the strand to figure out what commands controlled the lights and how he could alter them. In the process he discovered that the lights were capable of much more than the stock setup allowed for.

Watch the video above to see his slick color changing sequences and the programmable array in action. Visit his blog at the link below to read more about the LED lights, how he modded them, and download the code he used for his microcontroller.